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Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT was originally the fifth game in the Police Quest series (but spawned the SWAT series). It is an interactive movie type game released in 1995 that suffered the same fate as most titles of the same genre released during the so-called Multimedia Explosion in the mid-nineties. With extensive use of FMV videos for its basic gameplay, the game took up four CDs. As the game and its predecessor did not encounter commercial success, it would take three years until a new game in the Police Quest series would be released (Police Quest: SWAT 2).[citation needed]
In keeping the rule strictness of the previous series, the majority of the game is spent in repetitive training exercises. In fact, there are only 3 actual missions in the game (a deranged grandmother, a barricaded fugitive, and a terrorist attack). Each of the missions can only be accessed after the successful completion of many training exercises. To increase replay value, the missions are randomized so that they unfold in a different way each time (a character may be an innocent in one play-through, and a gun-wielding maniac in another). The role the player takes during the mission also differs based on the career path they have selected during training; for example during the last mission the player may act as either the element leader or a high-ground sniper.
SWAT was rereleased under the Police Quest Collection Series compilation (along with the first four games in the series), and later the Police Quest: SWAT Generation collection (with SWAT 2 and SWAT 3).
The game is listed as Police Quest 5 (PQ5) in the file names, folder, and the credits. The number does not appear on the title screen.
Template:SWAT video games